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isilelen

ID help? Mystery aloe.

IsilElen
9 years ago

Four years ago, I got a 'grow your own aloe' kit. The seeds were triangular and brown with white edges, and all 12 of them sprouted. Five months later, when they'd outgrown the starter kit, I put them in 3" pots. They didn't really look like aloes at that point, more like overgrown grass. A year later, I'd given most of them away - they'd grown reddish hook-shaped teeth on the edges of their leaves, and trying to separate them to turn them on the windowsill was like reaching into a box full of kittens, minus the fur. The leaves got very long, even when I moved the remaining four to 6" pots, and I started trimming them away at the bottom just to have access to the soil so I could water them.

The seed packet said 'aloe ferox', but it also said '6 varieties' and now that the plants are four years old...they don't look that much different than they did at one year old and I have no idea what they are. They lean towards the light (hence having to turn them), the hook teeth have mostly faded except near the base, the leaves are very long and thin and will bend under their own weight, and they have a stem. If I didn't trim the leaves, they'd form a mat over the soil and slowly dry out. When they need to be watered, the leaves fold up lengthwise. They've never flowered.

This is one of the four. On the left, a picture of the plant at a year old when the leaves hadn't been trimmed at all. On the right, a picture I took today so you can see the plant as it is now. Can someone tell me what my toothy plantbabies are?

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